"The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned." (Maya Angelou)

Wednesday, 20 January 2016

London, my London

“And it’s six in the morning and, gave me no
warning, I’m riding with Lady Luck, freeway cars and trucks/Stars beginning to
fade, and I lead the parade/Just a-wishing I‘d stayed a little longer/Oh, Lord,
let me tell you that the feeling’s getting stronger.”

Having just emerged from the rainforest, I can echo mixed feelings about zoos. It is a privilege to see animals in the wild, but zoos do have a role in education and conservation. But I have no such mixed feelings about cricket ... As a true obsessive I love Lords!

I need not emphasize the fact that cyling is good for health and also helps to reduce pollution. I hope more people will understand this and switch over to cycles instead of taking their motor vehicles out when they go for short distances.

As far zoo's are concerned they have become a necessity since many species of birds and animals have vanished from the earth due to poaching and wanton killing of animals and birds in the name of hunting. It will be a great experience for your children to visit the zoo and see the reptiles, animals, and birds live instead of watching them on the Tv. I have taken my children to the nearby zoo and I must tell you that they enjoyed the visit a lot.

thanks for this tour of London. i like to cycle too, usually on weekends, when i cycle to the many parks in my island nation. However, the roads here are not really built with cyclists in mind, and motorists are quite mean and intolerant towards cyclists.

Hi ACIL - I used to cycle as a kid, then tried again in London for a short time when I didn't have a car; and again down here .. but now it'd be interesting - with the new hip at one year old I could try again .. suspect for the moment I won't.

I think zoos, such as London Zoo - are now essential to our understanding of animals and nature ... if we hadn't destroyed their habitat - that'd be the best, but with 7 billion of us - that seems unlikely now. When the cobweb thread gets pulled out of kilter completely and won't heal, because we've destroyed too many organisms - we will lose, and the ants will start again ... evolution in due time will recalibrate.

I have mixed feelings about zoos, but on balance I think the larger, better run zoos and small specialised zoos do valuable work for conservation and education and that balances out the negatives. I know that there are still behavioural problems for a lot of captive animals, but zoo-keepers are increasingly learning how to enrich the enclosure environment so that the animals are stimulated and occupied. having said that I'd rather live in a wlord where we didn't need zoos

Hey Cubano--I am so enjoying your riding around London. I ride a bike up in the country where I live (but not in NYC where I go to work a few days a week. I would be rather petrified there.) But it is a great way to see things--and in the country a great way to see animals in fact, as they do not hear your approach in the same way. I have mixed feelings re zoos as I am not sure many people would support conservation programs without some experience of live animals. In a way zoo animals are a kind of sacrificial lamb--pretty awful--but if they save animals--I don't know. The natural world is so injured every day. I wanted to say you have a very small typo, I think--I just mention it because I hate to see something where writing so smooth--I think you may have left out word "way" --if zoo animals were looking at us-- I mean, it works as written! You are a wonderfully conversational writer--k.

I have mixed feelings about zoos but must admit that I enjoy being able to ride the tram around the zoo here in my wheelchair and see the animals without having to deal with crowds, trash, people walking into me or staring as if I am an oddity, as has happened there and elsewhere. I love what you describe from your bike...Cheers!

Strange...I have often pondered that one too: what if we humans were confined to cages in a zoo, how would we feel?When I see those poor tigers and bears pacing up and down in frustration, I can't help feeling such empathy.Still, as you say, zoos have saved some species from extinction, so they can't all be bad, can they?!

Although I feel some sadness at the idea of wild animals spending their lives in cages, I must confess that I've always enjoyed visiting zoos. When we first moved to Atlanta in 1971, the zoo here was horrid, and the cages with their concrete floors and iron bars seemed more like jail cells than anything. Worst, though was the poor polar bear trying to stay cool in our sweltering temperatures. I'm pleased to say the zoo has changed tremendously, and there are huge "natural habitat" kinda settings, with animals roaming in the great outdoors. Families of apes rolling down grass-covered hills and swinging from the trees, lolling in hammocks, etc. And the educational and conservational aspects of the zoo and the people who run it are top notch.

It's so obvious, as you relate your tales of cycling through the area that you truly love where you are living. You may be a "transplant," but your are definitely blooming where you're planted.

About Me

Look well to this day for it is life,
the very best of life. In its brief course lie all the realities and truths of existence, the joy of growth, the splendour of action, the glory of power. For yesterday is but a memory and tomorrow is only a vision. But today if well-lived makes every yesterday a memory of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.
(Ancient Sanskrit Poem)